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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22542049">Eclipsed</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ariasune/pseuds/Ariasune'>Ariasune</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kingdom Hearts</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Character Study, Dream Sequence, Gen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 14:21:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,120</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22542049</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ariasune/pseuds/Ariasune</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Xehanort’s voice was slow, another wave crashing against his Heart, pulse like the shatter of the sea: "There’s no saving you now."</p><p><i>But there’s so much to do, </i>Sora’s voice was small, faint, <i>there’s so little time.</i></p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Eclipsed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>He was Drowning in Sleep. Layer upon layer of it. A wave rushing over him, another, another until it was impossible to distinguish the edges of Self from the Ocean. Sinking and Seeping into a memory, a feeling — the memory of someone you once held, the feeling of never holding them again. An ocean of grief and loss and love, calling out like a voice in darkness: this isn’t what I wanted, this isn’t what I wanted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And it took him by the Heart, held it tight, a promise: but this is what you asked for.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Xehanort’s voice was slow, another wave crashing against his Heart, pulse like the shatter of the sea: "There’s no saving you now."</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>But there’s so much to do,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Sora’s voice was small, faint, </span>
  <em>
    <span>there’s so little time</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>For a moment, he washed ashore: sitting on a wooden deck, across from his father, watching how to weave a net with young, young eyes. He tried to say something, opened his mouth and found it choking, like light had trapped inside. Like darkness ached in his throat. The edges of the memory dissolving like sand in water. The sunlight pulling away like a tide pulling out. The ocean dissipating like a dream. Sora stared around himself, four years old, with horror in his eyes as the ocean receded to nothing, the island crumbling to shadows — he looked back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ventus smiled back at him, heart shining, flickering like a star. "Hey Sora, it’s been a long road, hasn’t it?"</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Ventus? But— how are you here?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Ventus reached out to take his hand, squeezed it even though Sora couldn’t feel it, and Sora felt so young and small and alone: "I’m only a memory, Sora, I’m sorry. You protected me in your Heart for so long, Sora. Take your time with your own."</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>The shore pulled away from under him. A rush of water that came on so fast he didn’t know what to do, just cried out, watched Riku - so young, so afraid - racing across the shore back and forth, calling his name. A memory of being drawn out to sea, the current waiting below beating feet. Sora went under. The Ocean took—</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Left things dark, and moon-scored. Riku - older now, hair long and covering his face - sitting beside him at the margin between the Darkness and the Light. Their hands overlapping. He tried to turn to look at him. Ask if Riku still believed in him, if Sora could still find his way back—</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But when he looked at Riku—</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Roxas held both of Sora’s hands in his, identical and yet different. "You’re sleeping, Sora, you have to wake up." Roxas stared at him, mouth creased with worry. "Take your time, Sora. Can you walk forward? I’m sorry I’m not here with you, but you need to move forward now—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t know how, he couldn’t, every part of him felt separated, heavy, tired. As though he were only the sum of his parts. He took a step, stumbled, and felt someone at his side, holding him up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>"It sleeps within you," Xion’s voice was so close, so near. Kairi’s. Xion, her hand offered like the open petals of a flower, palm like a promise— "if you give it form, it can give you strength, Sora."</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Kingdom Key, heavy in his heart, his hand, his—</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"How will you fight without a weapon?" Riku asked him, asked him with an open hand stretched out, the ocean rising behind him. "I thought you were stronger than that." Sora closed in desperately, fighting through the shallows, and the water hit hard enough to knock the breath from him. Threw him backwards and lost, far from Riku. Bubbles glittered around his mouth like light, and he breathed in deep, heavy, ragged…</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>"Checkmate" Xehanort, young, untouched with darkness, grinned across a gold and silver chess board at Sora. "And so Darkness prevails, and Light expires." He seemed playful, light, the lightness of leaving no impact, "you need a new strategy—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"My move, isn’t it?" Sora asked, unsure where the feeling came from. He reached out, picking the crown emblem piece in his hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Uh…?" Xehanort blinked, "huh?"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"It’s not over," Sora said, fierce, bright, and Xehanort huffed at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"C’mon that’s not fair, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> I had you—"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Yes, you nearly did—" Sora watched this memory dissolve away too. Xehanort, an old man now, collapsing against the floor. His Memory of Scala a battle site in glass and marble. Struggling to get up. The χ-blade fallen at his side. "It’s over now!" Sora yelled, "you’ve lost!"</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"No… look…" Xehanort smiled up at Kingdom Hearts in the sky, the soul hot glow of it. A forge burning in Sora’s chest. "It’s too late."</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I wonder what they planned on doing with Kingdom Hearts after making it appear</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"No--" Sora insisted. "It’s not too late! There’s still time!" Moments flew past, sharp as salt. Memories. Eraqus. Xehanort. His friends. Riku’s smile as they followed Sora’s Heart to the Other Side. The χ-blade solid and true in Sora’s hands, yet to burn, yet to ache, the bequeathment true— the dream, the memory collapsing into the ocean. An island of awareness falling into the sea, and Sora was drowning again, drowning—</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>"There’s no saving you now."</span>
</p><p>
  <b>Sora, you don’t believe that. I know you don’t.</b>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>In the cradle of the abyss, Heart dissolving at the seams, lost and eclipsed, Sora drew the χ-blade like a shining thing. A promise. A shout, all ferocity and brightness, all hope. And he woke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He woke, he woke, he woke, the ocean spilling around him and vanishing, light dripping down his skin like water, darkness warm against his face. Sora woke. Gasped. Clutched at his chest. Collapsed against a Stained Glass Station. Curled on his side, seeing the bright, beaming prisms of worlds fracture under his fingertips. The χ-blade a seethe of light in his hand, burning with cold darkness, his heart cracking under the strain of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sora curled in tight, held the χ-blade like a life-line, heard glass crack, felt the dream splinter, the χ-blade in two pieces in his hand. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had woken, broken, terribly broken. He had Dove into Kingdom Hearts to escape by the grace of the First Heart’s Keyblade. By the ordinance of the χ-blade. The same χ-blade pulling his heart apart, but it had saved Sora, saved him even as he struggled to make a sound of pain, saved him even as the weight of it pulled him under. Saved him as he could hardly gasp, hardly scream. The Station of Kingdom Hearts fractured, cracked, fragmented, </span>
  <em>
    <span>burst</span>
  </em>
  <span>—</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Take your time</span>
  </em>
  <span>, a voice he didn’t recognize murmured,</span>
  <em>
    <span> the door is still shut.</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
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